“Argue for your limitations and sure enough they’re yours.”
~Richard Bach

For whatever reason, I’ve been fascinated by the number of times that the topic of limitation has come up for discussion in my coaching sessions recently. Sometimes my clients feel limited by some perceived parameters such as a disability, a difference, a perceived weakness or imperfection. But more often than not, they are struggling with someone else’s projected idea of limitation.

I know in my own life I am much more careful than I used to be about telling others the things that I am doing or the things I hope to do. At times, others will suggest that I am doing too much or suggest that what I am already doing (unknown to them) is impossible. Now, more than ever, I am vigilant not to buy into someone else’s ideas of limitation.

It may be tempting to see ourselves as small and play small. Playing small doesn’t threaten others and it can feel reassuring to not challenge the choices we’ve always made or that those around us make. However, if to limit our truest and highest expression is an attempt not to rock the boat, or make others feel less threatened, our life is ultimately unlived.

We know when we are doing too much, when our priorities are out of whack or based on values and ideals that don’t suit us. We tend to feel run down, we get sick easily and we have low energy. Only we can evaluate whether we are involving ourselves in what positive psychology expert Paul Pearsall refers to as “Toxic Success”. What looks frenetic or overly-intense to another may be on point and healthy for us. We can always ask ourselves a question to uncover the genesis of our motivation to assess whether we are behaving manically or purposely, whether we are moving towards or away from life and/or if we are coming from the perspective of love or fear.

If we are creating, developing, growing and learning, why visit the idea of limits? Why buy into the projections of those who feel restricted and limited in their own lives?

What is fascinating to me is that many of my clients and friends with disabilities perceive fewer limits than my friends and clients who seem to have every opportunity and ability at their fingertips. What I have discovered is that what is most important is what abilities and blessings we are willing to embrace. Certainly, the biggest limit comes from putting focused attention on perceived challenges, disabilities, imperfections or limitations.

When speaking to a dear client of mine the other day, we marveled at the life of Helen Keller. When we ponder the fact that many of us can be derailed for days in the face of an unkind word, it is amazing to think what she was able to overcome. Helen Keller is a great example of someone who was able to focus on her abilities instead of her limitations. Because she was able to do this, she was able to maximize her gifts of genius and compassion. How can you focus on your abilities to release your personal genius?

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Helen Keller (1880 – 1968)


Whenever I am tempted to think that I can’t face a certain life challenge because of some perceived limitation, I think of Helen Keller. She became deaf and blind due to a childhood disease, and she overcame her adversity by learning sign language, Braille, and learning to speak. She said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.”
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(c) 2012 Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

It is difficult when we find ourselves dealing with a situation that we would never want consciously to create. These days, when many believe that we create our total reality, we may feel guilty if our life seems to contain aspects in it which are untoward. Whether we have stubbed our toe or are facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, we may wonder why these unpleasant elements have manifested in our lives. Did we create this? Are we vibrationally unfit?

With the popularity of the movie The Secret, which is about the Law of Attraction (L.o.A.), we may be tempted to blame ourselves or others when certain things have manifested in one’s life. While the Law of Attraction does have its place in the scheme of our life, it is just one of many life laws. We may unconsciously use blame as a way to distance ourselves from others who are suffering. Some may even think or actually say to sufferers, “Well, you manifested that.”

Ester and Jerry Hicks (Abraham) who popularized the Law of Attraction concept would never wish that the Law of Attraction concept be utilized to rationalize callousness or unkindness. While we want to be aware of the power we have in attracting into our lives the elements that we wish for, ultimately attracting what we want and becoming more actualized beings through contrast is also a powerful force. Most of us will relate to the seemingly paradoxical force of creating and becoming through contrast. Some metaphysicians believe that we may have asked before our birth that we be in challenging contrasting roles so that we may have opportunities to work through karma and/or to “get off the karmic wheel” altogether through the force of challenge. This idea is similar to that of a body builder who pushes her muscles against the contrasting force of weight encouraging her muscles to grow bigger and stronger. Most of us know that when we work through difficulties, we have the opportunity to become more compassionate, stronger, smarter, and more actualized beings.

Most of us would never consciously say, “Let me choose this particular difficult situation to work through.” If we could learn more through joy, wouldn’t that be great? But, let’s face it, most of us learn the most through challenge. When we deal with difficulties, we often become better people than we ever thought we would or could. We also model for others how they might survive, creating a coping model for all those who watch us and come after us. We need not feel guilty about suffering. We will all know suffering. We can choose to become bitter and angry when we suffer (which is also okay as long as we don’t get stuck in it) or we can choose to become soft-hearted, loving, compassionate, and smarter. Yes, smarter! My friends and I often call our challenges “reference points.” We can have a good laugh about our challenges and say when something unpleasant happens (albeit tongue in cheek), “Yea! More reference points!”

Many of the most powerful, influential change agents throughout history had difficult or challenging lives. Having the contrast to what they would have wished for or would have liked to have created given the conscious opportunity, seemed to make them the leaders and role models they became. Would Harriet Tubman, a severely beaten slave, been motivated to free others had she been a spoiled child? Maybe. But, my intuition tells me this is doubtful. However, the means do not justify the end. Child abuse, for example, isn’t justifiable because someone like Oprah takes that experience and uses it for contrast to become more than she might have. But people who overcome their contrasts do seem to become especially incredible, stellar human beings. Again, purposefully visiting pain on others is never justifiable.

I’ve recently noticed that most of the people in my personal life that I am closest to have had a child that died. At first I thought this was an interesting coincidence. Now, I realize that I am drawn to these people because they have overcome one of the greatest pains possible and have become deeper, kinder, more sensitive, and often deeply spiritual people. (I love you guys—you know who you are—thank you for being my friends and heroes!).

Many people will never overcome the contrasts to joy in their life. This is why we don’t want to invite contrast into our lives or anyone else’s life. However, I would invite anyone who has had contrasts to joy and happiness in their life to consciously catapult themselves into more enlightened and loving human beings. It is as if the circumstances of life are the rubber band pulled backward as far as possible and you are the stone also pulled backward for a period of time. However, when the rubber band is released, you are catapulted to heights that you would not have been able to go had you not been forced backward in contrast for that period of time.

I would offer to try not to feel guilty about your contrasts because of the tenor of our times. Remember to be gentle with yourself. If a child has a wound, wouldn’t your first response be to take care of the child and love him? How might you use your contrasts to make the world a better place? My goal in life is to assuage the suffering of all sentient beings (I’m shooting big!). How might you use your suffering for the positive? Like a surfer riding waves who uses the contrasts in the tides to move forward, how might you put the force of contrasts to use in your life?

(c) 2009 Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

First published February 2009

Unlock the Secrets to the Personality That only a Few Experts Know and Will Share! Revolutionize your Relationships!

May 20, 2012 1:00 -3:30 Sunday Luna Fitness of Tempe, AZ Elliot & Rural

FREE

Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

When most of us think of the words abundance and prosperity, we think about the acquisition of material things. Perhaps a broader definition of abundance and prosperity would be more empowering to those of us on a spiritual path. Because my lovely friend Rev. Carmen J. Day asked me to be her guest on her radio show to discuss abundance and prosperity, I was encouraged to reflect on these concepts.

When I was a little girl living in Highland, California, I knew what “having it all” meant. True abundance was having brown skin like Adam Orozco (what a dream boat), having a big loving family, and being able to participate in the Mexican Hat Dance on Cinco de Mayo. As it turned out, I was the only white kid in my class and I had to sit in the audience with the only African American kid in my class (which wasn’t bad at all because he looked like Michael Jackson from the Jackson 5—which at that time was a VERY cool thing!) and watch the dancers on stage gleefully performing the Mexican Hat Dance. While my friend and I did a mean-seated hat dance, we knew we were out of the prosperity loop.

Later my family moved to Orange County, California (now known as the OC!). Prosperity meant owning a track mansion close to the ocean, having designer label clothes, attending private college prep schools, and driving high priced cars. Overnight, the Mexican Hat Dance lost its value. While I enjoyed some of the fruits of financial abundance, I could clearly see that money would not make you happy. Money was just an energy which could be used to heal through generosity or to hurt through avarice. I recognized that money in and of itself is a neutral energy. Clearly, it seemed to me, there is nothing wrong at all with appreciating things. However, I recognized that finding your identity, worth, salvation, or happiness in material things can be a lonely prison of one’s own making. The image of Jay Gatsby from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby comes to mind.

As an adult, I realize much of abundance is about appreciating what you already have and can experience. Once I bought a new car and I was super psyched about owning a BRAND NEW car. I felt I was on top of the world. Later, my friend bought the same exact car and she called it a cheap piece of junk. We had a laugh about our very different perceptions. In that situation, I had an abundance consciousness and she was coming from a lack consciousness. What we think about expands. Moreover, if thoughts really are things, not a metaphor, what are we creating when we focus on lack?

When we shift our thoughts to gratitude, we can begin to embrace more of what we desire in our lives, which is laying latent within. In Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Manifest Your Destiny, he suggests meditating to the sound of creation.

First the sound of creation “aaaahh” is chanted for a period of time. Then “ommmm” is chanted in gratitude for what has been created. There are also other ways to connect with the sacred state of gratitude. Oprah suggests keeping a daily gratitude journal. The music of Sean Owen may help bring us into a state of thanks. Prayer connects us to thankfulness. Before my children go to sleep at night, I ask them, “What are you thankful about today?”

I adore the book, The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principle for Abundant Living by Laurence G. Boldt. The eight principles are:

1.) Recognizing the unity of all things starts you on the path to true abundance

2.) Learning to receive opens the door to your greatest good.

3.) Following the path of least resistance brings success with ease.

4.) Circulating the energy in your life strengthens health, deepens relationships, and generates wealth.

5.) Honoring your innate dignity and actualizing your inborn abilities is the road to authentic power.

6.) Balancing yin and yang eliminates stress and brings peace of mind.

7.) Taking time to be, to grow, and to nurture your relationships gives you the strength to persevere.

8.) Achieving your destiny is a matter of trusting and embracing the organic pattern of your life.

I also highly recommend The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price, and the classics Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clayson.

(c) 2007 Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

I am so excited! Just realized I am in the Holy Encounter newsletter on page 11/15 “My Love Affair with A Course in Miracles”. http://www.miraclecenter.org/services/holyencounter/mayjune12.pdf

Springtime where I live in Arizona is the most beautiful time of year. The weather is warm, but not too warm. The flowers are blooming and a sense of peace and ease seems to waft through the air. It is a time of new beginnings inviting fresh perspectives and new relationships.

Tomorrow many of us will celebrate Easter. Many people say that Easter is their favorite holiday. Unlike some other holidays the weather is lovely, there are no monetary demands and we are imbued with feelings of promise and hope.

In the Christian tradition, Easter represents a time when Jesus the Christ is crucified and three days later, he rises from the dead. Metaphysically, the three days represent a time of suffering, the unknown, and grief. Not to take anything away from this powerful and sacred story, most of us can relate to what the three-day period represents. Like Mary—Jesus’ mother—we, too, may have suffered the loss of a child, we may have grieved over another type of personal loss, or we may have had another type of a dark night of the soul experience during which we couldn’t see clearly the light on the other side of our grief.

The challenge of the “three days” for many of us is that we forget that there will come a time of renewal. We may have gone through a period of grief before, gotten through it, and our efforts now seem like the work of moments when really it was a painstaking, difficult, and treacherous time for us. Let us remember that we survived and thrived before and we can do it again!

Ultimately, the Easter story is a story of hope and promise. We are reminded of the world outside our temporal experience. We are more than our body, more than this identity, and more even than this life. In the end we will all overcome.

If we know someone who is going through a challenging time, let’s offer to that person the gift of kindness by extending ourselves, telling our story that ended—perhaps impossibly—positively and offering the gift of springtime and Easter: hope!

(c) 2009 Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

When I was in my doctoral program and working on a class devoted to Ken Wilber’s teachings, I decided to attend a Ken Wilber Meetup group so that I might get my head around some of his concepts.

There were about eight people in attendance, all very accomplished academics and serious intellectuals. Suddenly, I became very conscious of my bubble gum pink lipstick and jingly charm bracelet. However, in this group was the face of an amazingly sweet and loving man. He was in his early 60s, smart, kind and completely open. When he looked at me I felt he acknowledged my very being on a soul level. This incredibly accomplished and brilliant doctor asked my about my ideas and opinions and was clearly sincere in wanting to learn from me (wow!) or anyone or anything in his presence. His open heart and mind touched me and inspired me. He had the joyful laugh of a child (reminiscent of being in the presence of The Dalai Lama) and had the ability to move quickly into joyful expression at the slightest provocation. Dr. Sri Sridharan was an advocate of peace and was dedicated to the healing of the planet.

The meeting ended late in the evening, but I had the gumption to call my friend in Vermont at 1:00am to tell her about my experience. She was sure I had just met with a Bodhisattva.**

I had the good fortune of seeing Sri at the next Meetup meeting. Again, in his presence I felt a warm and deeply comforted sensation. On an interesting note, he was wearing a baseball cap with the name of someone that was to be an angel in my life.

Sri’s laugh was contagious and he and I shared a moment of exchanging business cards and appreciating what the other wanted to do in the world. His card, he explained, was indestructible. “Try and tear it”, he said. I tried and tried but could not tear it. He laughed at my desperate attempts to rip it. Later, I saw this as a metaphor for the Bodhisattva’s presence in our lives. I hugged Sri goodbye and wished him well on his trip to Africa.

Several weeks later, I received an email that Sri had died. I was shocked and had to read it several times to let it sink in. Apparently, while working on the film Son of Ghana in Africa, (www.sonofghana.com) he had contracted Malaria.

At his funeral, people spoke of Sri’s love of others and Sri’s consistent willingness to be open and humble. People came from all over the world. Sri’s guru/mentor Dwarkoji (a disciple of Ghandi!) had made the trip from India to celebrate in Sri’s life. Clips from the movie Son of Ghana were shown with Sri dancing happily in a sea of beautiful African children. Kute Blackson was in attendance and said that he felt then that Sri might be making his transition soon as he saw the liberation in Sri’s dancing and Sri’s desire to throw off identities.

I had the opportunity to speak to Sri’s lovely daughter Radhika and share with her how much her father inspired me. She looked at me with a knowing look and we embraced.

Dr. Sri Sridharan as a young man

For more information about Sri go to: www.infinisri.com

**The Bodhisattva does not seek bodhi (awakening) solely for him/herself, but chiefly for the sake of freeing all other beings and aiding them into the bliss of Nirvana. This can be done by venerating all Buddhas and by cultivating supreme moral and spiritual perfection, to be placed in the service of others. Bodhisattvas vow to amass inconceivable amounts of merit (punya), which they will dedicate to all other sentient beings, so as to help them attain Nirvana and Awakening. (Wikipedia)

To the Bodhisattvas in the World (thank goodness for them!)

Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

As a life coach, I often support people who’d like to lose weight and become healthier. Without exception, my clients know what works for them but they would like help with accountability for their strategy. Often these same clients desire “clutter coaching.” Once I provide some strategies and methodologies for streamlining their environments, in regard to de-cluttering, they also ask for encouragement, inspiration, and accountability. What I have observed for years and have even noticed for myself is that when my clients get serious about health and fitness, they find themselves de-cluttering and when they de-clutter, they often lose weight.

Metaphysically, I am not at all surprised by this phenomenon. Those extra possessions that we are holding onto are energetically much like the extra weight that we may be holding onto. These redundant belongings and extra weight reflect choices to hold onto something that is not needed and not relevant to our lives. In fact, the weight and the clutter could both be characterized as “useless baggage.” The adage “Clutter is anything that doesn’t add value to your life” might be applied both to material possessions and body weight that doesn’t serve us.

When we own too many possessions or are carrying weight that feels cumbersome, our participation in our own life often becomes compromised. The author of Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, offered, “Be steady and well ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.” When we are burdened by excess it is hard to be proactive, let alone fierce!

As desirable as we feel it may be to have a streamlined and well-ordered environment and a healthy and fit body, perhaps it is even more important to evaluate the clutter in our own minds. Old judgments, unsupportive or outdated beliefs may also need purging. We can begin this de-cluttering process by thought monitoring. We may challenge all beliefs that are unloving to ourselves and others. My experience has been that those who carry judgments towards others are doubly critical of themselves. Having unpleasant, burdensome, and uncharitable thoughts will undoubtedly make us feel tired, fearful, discouraged, and depressed.

Many of us find ourselves with a cluttered mind when we feel the need to police the universe. We may believe that if someone doesn’t stand in judgment of those who are outside of our belief system the world will run amuck.

I don’t know about you, but I have never been inspired to do my best when I know I am being judged. Judgment often makes those who are being judged spiral into guilt. When we over identify with our less than stellar behavior (and by over identify, I mean when we think we actually are the untoward behavior) we will inevitably repeat our behavioral pattern.

Some of us might relate to having one cookie and then eating the whole bag because we felt guilty for eating the first cookie. We may say to ourselves, “I’m fat, what does it matter?” or “I am weak-willed. I might as well polish off the whole bag.” When we hold the highest vision for others and ourselves rather than judgment, we don’t over identify with our mistakes and we feel the self-confidence and self-love we need to begin again.

If we choose to empty our rice bowls as a Buddhist might characterize the process, we unburden our environments, bodies, hearts, and minds and clear our obstructions to love. With an open heart and mind we can commence connecting with ourselves and with others in an authentic, liberated, and impassioned way.

When we are in a loving state of mind we are in flow. We feel light and joyful. From that state of Divine peace we remember the absurdity of unloving, unkind, and judgmental thoughts. We connect with the satisfaction of having learned to get out of our own way. We realize the rigid and fear based thoughts and beliefs we believed were keeping us safe were actually doing anything but. We come to acknowledge that these anachronistic thoughts actually created a barrier to happiness. When we unburden ourselves from the weight of mental, physical, and environmental clutter we have the clarity to begin anew.

Happy Spring cleaning to all of you!

Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

As we move into 2012, many of us have a clear awareness that the most profound insights in regards to personal evolution have less and less to do with the acquisition of information and motivation and much more to do with cultivating qualities that will bring us into a deeper and more enhanced experience of the self and the transpersonal.

Because we have lived through the information age, most of us have been tempted to think that the greatest personal growth could be found through finding “the answers”. Similarly, many have been temporarily enthused by motivation or success coaching strategies. The trouble with this strategy for “sticky” stay with you development and results is that motivation is almost always generated by something outside ourselves. The truest development which offers the life enhancing integration and clarity we are looking for often continue to elude us.

The shift of consciousness many are moving into is one away from striving, trying and seeking and towards an inner honing of intuition, subtle energy awareness and an embrace of gentleness and compassion as powerful ways to interact with our world. An aggressive attempt to manipulate the self (mind or body) has now given way to “going with”, listening, aligning with, total acceptance and love.

Many of us find that we are our own worst enemy. Speaking for myself, many of my biggest muck ups have come from getting in my own way, not listening to or honoring my inner wisdom and choosing to struggle with life rather than dance with it. Bruce Lee once said “There is no opponent” but many of us behave and think in ways that suggest we believe that life is against us.

Some of us feel we have completely lost our connection to our inner wisdom. We have lost touch with who we are. A good life coach can help you reconnect with your subtle body awareness, intuitive perceptions and the subtle energy that carries the wisdom to help you unfold and align with your highest possible expression in the world.

Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available

Today being St. Patrick’s Day reminded me of a time when I was in my early 20s and in Ireland. I was as far away from Southern California as I could imagine. I remember lying in a giant four poster king sized bed all alone (glorious) with a feather goose down comforter and a hot water bottle at my feet. I watched the rain pour down in huge sheets which crashed dramatically into the window. While the water obscured the view partially, I could still make out the green rolling hills beyond. “This is the life” I thought.

When I am tempted to feel down or discouraged, my friend lauren always reminds me of the magic in life. Sometimes we forget those magical moments. Some of us remember 10 hours or so of labor and the doctor incredibly laying our beautiful baby on our breast. Sometimes the magic is in overcoming a challenge we thought we couldn’t, but somehow we found that elusive pot of gold at the end of the circuitous rainbow. Often, as with kissing the Blarney Stone, we must have have some blind faith in the process so that we might receive the gifts (in this case the gift of eloquence).

While the story of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland is probably a metaphor for driving Pagan religions from Ireland, we may think of driving the snakes (or bad bits) out of our own minds and reflect for some time on the magical aspects. Sometimes we give those four leaf clovers short shrift!

While often frustrating, challenging and exhausting, it is still a very beautiful world!

Biggarah! Have a Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

(c) 2012 Jeanine Marie Austin, Ph.D., C.Ht.
Doctor of Life Coaching, Certified Hypnotherapist
Simply Divine Solutions
Life Coaching and Hypnosis Worldwide

http://www.SimplyDivineSolutions.com

(480) 491-0770

Free Consultation Available